LETTER: Stone’s holding to his principles

In her April 10 letter to The Sanford Herald Editor, Ann McCracken, chair of the Lee County Democratic Party, made it clear that she is very upset that state Rep. Mike Stone is sponsoring a bill that would require city of Sanford and school board races to be partisan.

In addition to calling this a “radical change,” Mrs. McCracken posed several questions regarding Rep. Stone’s legislation moving through the General Assembly.

The overriding question is why Mrs. McCracken, Mayor Olive, Mayor Pro-tem Gaskins and other Democrats have gone ballistic over Mr. Stone’s action. On the surface, it would seem that the Democrats would have proposed this legislation during the more than 100 years that they were in control of the General Assembly. After all, the Democrats have a huge advantage in the number of registered voters in Lee County and the state. Lee County has more than 6,200 more registered Democrats than Republicans. In N.C., registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 784,000.

This suggests that Democrats should welcome partisan races in all elections. Yet, in Lee County and the state election last year, Republicans won convincingly. It’s apparent that many Democrats and unaffiliated voters are choosing Republican candidates. Just perhaps, Republicans better represent their conservative views on major issues, including the size of government at all levels, taxes, taxpayer-funded abortions, gay marriage and the right to own guns.

Fortunately, for all constituents, Mr. Stone is holding to his principles and doing his job. He has not lowered himself into name-calling, gutter politics.